IBARW: Link to the person who said it better
Last year I had nothing to say for International Blog Against Racism Week. I was sort of feeling stupid, and terrified of saying something that would reveal that. This year, you'll wish I had nothing to say.
I'm not claiming to be Super WhiteChick! She knows everything about race, has ONLY Black friends, and gets stains out! In fact, I think I spent the entire month of July apologizing for various failures on my part at being aware of my privilege. So, please take my posts in the spirit of "Betty's pretty sure about this one! But if she's wrong please tell her?"
So, if you are, like me, a white girl, who finds this stuff unpleasant to think about, you could do worse than read A little clean up from our last discussion on race, by jlh.
If you're like me, there's a lot of stuff about race you'd rather not discuss, because you don't know much about it. The problem is, not knowing stuff isn't a neutral state: it's a state where you reflect the values of the society that raised you. Maybe you come from a society with no racist assumptions: if so, welcome to Earth! (Yeah, you might not want to stay on the planet long, though, we're kinda racist here.) If you're white, that ignorance doesn't get disturbed. The culture you're floating in was made to disturb those in power as little as possible. Just being a woman isn't enough to make me aware of all the ways that my society privileges white, upper class, rich, able-bodied, good looking men. It's made me aware of some of the ways society privileges men, but that leaves a bunch of stuff unexamined.
More from jlhThe only reason that being forced to think about race spoils your fun is because you are race privileged, and therefore you get to not have to think about race when you don't want to. I never get to not think about race. It's always there, in the back of my mind, and not because I'm fixated on it. It isn't even the first way I'd describe myself or my first filter on the world. It's there in the same way that most women can't forget they're women, or do to their peril.
[...]
Well, I'm here to lay down this gauntlet: We will stay stuck in the place we are in until all the race-privileged, wherever they are and however they are privileged, realize that race affects every single day of their life just as surely as it affects every day of my life, and until they lay down the privilege of not having to "think" about it. Until you are as aware of what you have and what you lack because of race, and until I can come to a clearer picture of what I have and what I lack because of race, we will never find a solution. Your wish to stick your head in the sand is not only holding us all back. It is,[...] abdicating the obligations of being human.
So. I'm gonna do this thing. If you're going to, you could do worse than starting at jlh's post
I'm not claiming to be Super WhiteChick! She knows everything about race, has ONLY Black friends, and gets stains out! In fact, I think I spent the entire month of July apologizing for various failures on my part at being aware of my privilege. So, please take my posts in the spirit of "Betty's pretty sure about this one! But if she's wrong please tell her?"
So, if you are, like me, a white girl, who finds this stuff unpleasant to think about, you could do worse than read A little clean up from our last discussion on race, by jlh.
If you're like me, there's a lot of stuff about race you'd rather not discuss, because you don't know much about it. The problem is, not knowing stuff isn't a neutral state: it's a state where you reflect the values of the society that raised you. Maybe you come from a society with no racist assumptions: if so, welcome to Earth! (Yeah, you might not want to stay on the planet long, though, we're kinda racist here.) If you're white, that ignorance doesn't get disturbed. The culture you're floating in was made to disturb those in power as little as possible. Just being a woman isn't enough to make me aware of all the ways that my society privileges white, upper class, rich, able-bodied, good looking men. It's made me aware of some of the ways society privileges men, but that leaves a bunch of stuff unexamined.
More from jlhThe only reason that being forced to think about race spoils your fun is because you are race privileged, and therefore you get to not have to think about race when you don't want to. I never get to not think about race. It's always there, in the back of my mind, and not because I'm fixated on it. It isn't even the first way I'd describe myself or my first filter on the world. It's there in the same way that most women can't forget they're women, or do to their peril.
[...]
Well, I'm here to lay down this gauntlet: We will stay stuck in the place we are in until all the race-privileged, wherever they are and however they are privileged, realize that race affects every single day of their life just as surely as it affects every day of my life, and until they lay down the privilege of not having to "think" about it. Until you are as aware of what you have and what you lack because of race, and until I can come to a clearer picture of what I have and what I lack because of race, we will never find a solution. Your wish to stick your head in the sand is not only holding us all back. It is,[...] abdicating the obligations of being human.
So. I'm gonna do this thing. If you're going to, you could do worse than starting at jlh's post